Reviving a flying horse and other sundry

I just booted up the Pegasos again and updated it to current Portage stuff, so I can start testing modular X on PPC. Next week, I should have some more time to begin working on this, because I have two midterms this Friday: quantum mechanics and linear algebra. Hope they go well; I haven’t made it to class much so far.

On the bright side, today my scores came in for my first departmental exams. First, I’ll have to explain what they are. Each quarter, starting in the second year, graduate students take an exam consisting of two questions. The questions are quite complex and regularly take multiple pages to answer. General topics are posted the Thursday before the exam, which is on Tuesday. We take all the time off in between and study 12+ hours a day.

Well, except for me. Relatives were in town for the weekend, so I didn’t get to study very much at all until Monday, with the exception of a few late-night jaunts to Shari’s (the local 24-hour restaurant).

To stay in the program, we need to pass 6 questions out of 12 opportunities, which many students barely make (and a few don’t). Minimum passing score is a 70.